Buffalo And Dirrel

Poul Anderson's "Strange Bedfellows" continues to demand close attention from its readers. Sevigny converses with "The Buffalo..." (p. 175) This turns out to be just the nickname of Chuck Norris, Chief of Operations, whose name and rank we read, with difficulty, as it is seen backwards in the frosted glass of his office door.

The Buffalo invites Sevigny in and tells him to bring in his "'...black friend, too.'" (ibid.) A black guy? Sevigny is surprised that the Buffalo knows that he has left his companion, called Oscar, in the outer office. Long story short, Norris has a camera out there. Oscar, when brought in, sounds like a dog but turns out to be "'A dirrel,'" (p. 176) an artificial organism used as a guide and hunting animal on Venus and made by geneticists from some kind of rodent. Sevigny says:

"'Oscar can communicate with me, a little, in a special language.'" (p. 177)

This recalls a conversation with a Marist Brother resulting from reading about an extraterrestrial animal in Robert Heinlein's Starman Jones. See Making Life.

Venus is being terraformed from desert so is not really like the terrestroid Venus in Heinlein's Future History as I had thought before. Nevertheless, we have just had two comparisons with Heinlein. Onward.